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Bye, bye, Brno – Agilia Conference moves!

31. October 2015 / Michal Vallo

Now, it is definitive. Agilia Conference moves away from Brno.

In the past, Brno slowly became a Mecca of technology industry in Czech Republic. Hand in hand with inflow of technology companies into the city, the demand for knowledge and latest information was also increasing. Therefore five years ago we have we have started our Agilia Conference here with ambition to provide ultimate knowledge in how technology and knowledge companies should be organized – simply Agile.

We started small and gradually grew, obsessed with focus on quality and depth of knowledge. Thus we became internationally recognized event. And our focus on quality eventually paid off. Agilia ranks among top 10 agile events in Europe. Only recently we could partner with another leader – Agile Cambridge. And it is sometimes encouraging to see other events are copying our ideas. However, in Brno we have reached our limits. We wants to continue to play highest league, and therefore we need to continue increasing quality of services.

We have started at Masaryk University, and quickly moved to Avanti. It was great improvement. Unfortunately we have got complains from our delegates regarding Avanti. And because I want to be fair, I have to admit Avanti is good place to stay in Brno. I understand that people, who travels just a little may have different opinion. Well, I spent almost 100 nights a year in hotels all around Europe and my opinion may be biased for some but I insist Avanti is very good. However, for organizing bigger prestigious event it does not fit perfectly. We learned through growth, equipment and attitude is not ideal for our event here.

We are not aiming at mega event and we do not think bigger event is better. However optimal size for Agilia is above capacity of Avanti. We have exceeded Avanti capacity and we do not want to run event while violating norms and regulations. That is why two years ago we started searching for a new venue. We have visited all possible buildings in Brno, many of them more than once. We found nothing. We failed to find in Brno venue place sufficient to accommodate Agilia in size and with quality additional services. Creating top European event we wish to provide service at level we are used to in London, Paris or Frankfurt. It is surprisingly sad, because Brno advertise itself with long tradition in exhibitions and hospitality. Well, our experience is different. We were struggling to find quality we wanted.

Is it better somewhere else in Czech Republic?

It is not easy to judge. We have visited many alternative places and came to conclusion that because Czech Republic apparently does not have tradition of conferences, necessary infrastructure is missing, too. For organizing small events there are many options. For organizing very large events such as 1000+ it seems there are some options, too. However, for sizes in between there are practically no options. We have also considered option to move abroad. At last Agilia we announced it already, and waited for your feedback. Thank you to all of you, who gave us suggestions.

(c) photo Jan Fidler, City of Olomouc via Flickr

Agilia moves to Olomouc

Now it is definite. In 2016 Agilia moves to Olomouc. Listed at UNESCO World Heritage List and 2x chosen as LonelyPlanet top 10 places in Europe to visit. It is slightly better reachable by plane than Brno and much better accessible from Slovakia and Poland. And it has equally lot to offer to foreign delegates. We have strong desire to create state of the art event and there is still long journey ahead of us. The time will show us whether we can succeed in Czech Republic or we will finally move further abroad.

Thank you Brno for your hospitality. We have enjoyed a lot. And we wish to come back one day. Because we believe, that Brno deserves to host top international event. We will come back as soon as infrastructure will be constructed and quality supporting services available.

About author: Michal Vallo helps managers to understand agile techniques, benefit from its adoption to their organizations and consequently radically improve organizational overall performance. He is principal, agile trainer, coach and manager at Aguarra, founding member of Agilia community and organizer of Agilia Conference / Agile Management Congress in Olomouc and Agilia Budapest Conference.